Cholesterol - why you and your friend might need different levels
Who is well?
The demands of the public for definitive wellness are colliding with the public’s belief in a diagnostic system that can find only disease. A public in dogged pursuit of the unobtainable, combined with clinicians whose tools are powerful enough to find very small lesions, is a setup for diagnostic excess. And false positives are the arithmetically certain result of applying a disease-defining system to a population that is mostly well.
What is paradoxical about our awesome diagnostic power is that we do not have a test to distinguish a well person from a sick one. Wellness cannot be screened for. There is no substance in blood or urine whose level is reliably high or low in well people. No radiologic shadows or images indicate wellness. There is no tissue that can undergo biopsy to prove a person is well. Wellness cannot be measure. . . If the behavior of doctors and the public continues unabated, eventually every well person will be labeled sick. (page 1) (Emphases added.)
C. K. Meador in “The Last Well Person," quoted by Angela Stanton, Ph.D. for Hormones Matter[fn]Stanton, Angela A., Ph.D. “Statins: Who Needs Them?” Hormones Matter, 19 Feb. 2024, www.hormonesmatter.com/statins-who-needs-them/. [/fn]
Are you a candidate for a statin drug?
Your doctor might advise you to start on a statin, a cholesterol-lowering medication, if recent bloodwork shows you have a high cholesterol level or a chronic illness such as diabetes which may put you at risk for heart disease, or because you're turning 40. Your doctor might also suggest reducing the amount of cholesterol-containing foods you eat, such as eggs.
Considering all the information in the mainstream media about the dangers of high cholesterol, and maybe having a friend who’s had a heart attack, you agree to start on the drug. Your doctor, however, may not explain what cholesterol is and why your body makes it, except perhaps to remind you that plaques containing cholesterol are found in the arteries of people with heart disease.
Without this information, a patient cannot make an informed decision whether or not to take a drug designed to change their cholesterol level to within a pre-determined, one-size-fits-all range.
Cholesterol - what it is and why you need it
Cholesterol is a waxy substance made predominantly in the liver; the brain and most cells in the body also make some cholesterol. Even though the brain produces cholesterol, a transporter mechanism helps some cholesterol produced in the liver to enter the brain through the blood-brain barrier.
Notably, the amount of cholesterol in food has a limited impact on cholesterol levels; the more cholesterol one eats the less the body makes and the less cholesterol one eats, the more the body makes.
The body tightly regulates the amount of cholesterol in our blood by controlling its internal production; when cholesterol intake in the diet goes down, the body makes more cholesterol, and when cholesterol intake in the diet goes up, the body makes less cholesterol. In other words, trying to avoid cholesterol in your food has little to no impact on your body’s cholesterol levels since it will simply regulate its own needs.[fn]Kay, Stephanie. “Why You Should Rethink Cholesterol.” Stephanie Kay Nutrition, 14 Feb. 2019, www.kaynutrition.com/why-you-should-rethink-cholesterol/.[/fn] (Emphasis added.)
Cholesterol is not a single purpose substance, it is necessary for many biological functions. It is the precursor to many critical substances and aids the synthesis of others. Indeed, it is hard to overestimate cholesterol’s importance to our body and its proper functioning. The following are some reasons why your body makes cholesterol:
- Brain function:
The brain uses about 25% of the cholesterol in the body. The brain is the most cholesterol-rich organ in the body and contains almost 25% of the total amount.1 The majority (70–80%) of this cholesterol is present in myelin, where it fulfils a critical insulating role.
. . . low HDL-C levels are often associated with cognitive impairment.66–68 Data from the Whitehall II Study confirmed that, in middle-aged adults, low HDL-C was associated with impaired verbal memory and, interestingly, further reductions in HDL levels was associated with a consequent cognitive decline at 5-year follow up.69 In contrast, high HDL-C levels seem to reduce dementia risk.[fn] Vitali, C., et al. “HDL and cholesterol handling in the brain.” Cardiovascular Research, vol. 103, no. 3, 6 June 2014, pp. 405–413, https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/article/103/3/405/2931058.[/fn] (Emphasis added.)
- Cell wall integrity:
Cholesterol is necessary for cell walls to function properly, keeping them waterproof, and giving them the proper stiffness. It also regulates what materials can enter and exit the cells. [fn] Böckmann, Ranier, Prof., Dr. “Cholesterol Makes Cell Membranes Flexible and Robust.” FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 14 Dec. 2023, www.fau.eu/2023/12/14/news/research/cholesterol-makes-cell-membranes-flexible-and-robust/.[/fn]
- Steroid production:
All steroid hormones your body produces are derived from cholesterol. They are important for controlling metabolism, inflammation, immune function, salt and water balance, the development of sexual characteristics, and the ability to withstand illness and injury.[fn] “Steroid Hormone.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid_hormone. [/fn]
Testosterone
Dr. Andrew Kaufman explains, in the video below, the importance of the hormone testosterone, a steroid, why men (and women) must make it in sufficient quantities, and what happens when it is too low.
- Vitamin D synthesis:
Vitamin D is crucial to bone health and immune function, among other important roles.
[Vitamin D] is a fat-soluble vitamin that has long been known to help the body absorb and retain calcium and phosphorus; both are critical for building bone. Also, laboratory studies show that vitamin D can reduce cancer cell growth, help control infections and reduce inflammation. . . . [fn] “Vitamin D.” The Nutrition Source, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, 7 Mar. 2023, www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamin-d/.[/fn] (Emphasis added.)
- Bile production:
Bile is synthesized from cholesterol and stored in the gall bladder. It has three main functions:
- Break down fats into forms that can be absorbed
- Absorb fat-soluble vitamins
- Remove toxins and metabolic waste, including bilirubin and cholesterol
By breaking down fats, bile acids also help your intestines absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.[fn] Daniel, Charles. “How Bile Helps Digestion.” Verywell Health, 23 Oct. 2023, www.verywellhealth.com/definition-of-bile-1759867. [/fn]
- Important antioxidant and repair substance:
In the video below, Dr. Eric Berg explains cholesterol’s antioxidant and repair functions:
Cholesterol levels differ with need
It's apparent from the above that cholesterol is vitally important to sustaining health. When cholesterol is artificially reduced, to push it toward a number based on an entire population rather than the level an individual's body requires, each one of these processes may be hampered.
. . . cholesterol is a healing agent in the body. When the body has some healing jobs to do, it produces cholesterol and sends it to the site of the damage. Depending on the time of day, the weather, the season and our exposure to various environmental agents, the damage to various tissues in the body varies. As a result, the production of cholesterol in the body also varies.
. . .
. . . So, when a doctor finds high cholesterol in a patient, what this doctor should do is to look for the reason. The doctor should ask, “What is damaging the body so that the liver has to produce all that cholesterol to deal with the damage?” Unfortunately, instead of this sensible procedure, our doctors are trained to attack the cholesterol.[fn]Campbell-McBride, Natasha. “Cholesterol: Friend or Foe?” The Weston A. Price Foundation, 4 May 2008, www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/know-your-fats/cholesterol-friend-or-foe/#gsc.tab=0. [/fn] (Emphases added.)
Check back as we continue our series on cholesterol and statins.
Related articles:
